In August 2005, I wrote a column about a recent National Labor Relations Board (Republican majority thereof) ruling that upheld the legality of a company’s banning its employees from fraternizing off the job, citing as a woozy precedent a previous ruling that had banned hotel employees from fraternizing with guests. Earlier this month, the D.C Court of Appeals overturned that 2005 ruling — reaffirming, broadly speaking, that the employer-employee relationship isn’t that of a lord to a serf, and, more narrowly, that happy hour with your co-workers is your true-blue American right.

I’m not sure which is more insane – that a company tried to ban its employees from hanging out with each other after work, or that the NLRB thought this was perfectly okay. Then again, if both are majority Republican, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.